Sylvio: Black Waters Review – Bite-Sized Dread

Horror as a genre has always lent itself quite well to short-form storytelling, with this strength being evidenced by the massive amount of indie short films and games. Indie studio Stroboskop is hoping to prove this once more with its latest entry in the Sylvio franchise. Rather than the series tradition of making use of a more grounded setting, Sylvio: Black Waters instead takes us to an alien planet that seems to have some dark secrets of its own.

"The goal when you start out is quite simple: you have to figure out the code for a computer you run into early in the game."

The latest entry doesn’t stray too far from tradition, however, as the core gameplay is quite similar to Sylvio and Sylvio 2. Sylvio: Black Waters largely revolves around interacting with orbs to learn key phrases, which then have to be arranged in the right order to progress further. To offer up some stakes, Sylvio: Black Waters also features some simplistic combat by giving you an air-powered gun to help you defend yourself against angry spirits.

The opening minutes of Sylvio: Black Waters doesn’t really explain much, opting instead to have the player be just as in the dark—both figuratively and literally—about where they are and what they’re doing as the protagonist. Our unnamed protagonist kicks things off by getting out of her space suit to walk into a body of water. This leads her to a dark place where the only real sources of light seem to be the remnants of other people that may have at some point been here.

The goal when you start out is quite simple: you have to figure out the code for a computer you run into early in the game. Aiding the hunt for this code is a video recording left behind by someone, indicating that we’ll have to go deeper into the darkness and potentially find another person that might happen to know the code. Aside from this, the general plot of the game is left quite vague.

"Our unnamed protagonist kicks things off by getting out of her space suit to walk into a body of water."

One of the most striking things about Sylvio: Black Waters is just how dark everything is. You can barely see more than a few feet ahead of you, and the only real way you’re going to be able to figure out where to go is by following a series of conveniently-placed lights. This darkness is a stylistic choice that adds quite a bit to the game’s creepy atmosphere. While there isn’t really any major jump scare, the darkness acts as a veil into the unknown, and you’ll constantly find yourself not trusting your peripheral vision just in case something might creep up on you.

Aside from providing some excellent atmosphere, the darkness also serves as a way for Sylvio: Black Waters to obfuscate its visuals. The game doesn’t have high fidelity graphics, and you’re not going to get amazing fine details throughout your time exploring the various environments. In fact, the visuals feel rather dated. This is thankfully not much of an issue, since these shortcomings are covered up by the artistic use of the darkness to provide some striking scenes of even something as simple as you climbing up a ladder.

The audio is similarly designed in a way that you’ll never really feel comfortable, adding to the sense of insecurity in the game’s locations. The music generally opts for moody pieces that either magnify the feeling of loneliness that you’re bound to feel, or a cacophony of loud sounds that will often catch you off-guard and unsure of whether you’re in any imminent danger. All in all, the atmosphere is crafted quite well by the game’s use of lighting and audio to instill a constant feeling of dread.

"The darkness acts as a veil into the unknown"

The gameplay, on the other hand, largely revolves around following those lights I mentioned earlier. Despite the overwhelming darkness throughout Sylvio: Black Waters, you’re never really going to get lost. In fact, there are plenty of walls, invisible or otherwise, that will block your attempts to walk off the beaten path. There are a few times when you are left to your own devices to somewhat explore your surroundings, but there isn’t really anything worth finding, since, at most, you might get a small tidbit of lore thanks to some old video recording left behind. However, the rewards for exploration don’t generally feel worth the effort.

Fairly soon after starting out, you’re able to get your hands on a watch that seemingly allows you to communicate with the spirits of those that died. These spirits are how we learn new phrases that are needed to progress through the game, and as you can guess, one of the core mechanics throughout Sylvio: Black Waters is finding these phrases. The watch also allows us to communicate with someone named Lee, who claims to be the only other living person on the entire planet. Lee helpfully guides you deeper into the planet’s “Lungs”, as you start communicating with spirits along the way.

The vast majority of the story in Sylvio: Black Waters comes from your communications with Lee, along with the phrases you learn from spirits. Every now and then, you’ll also find some audio-based puzzles that you can solve to learn more about the game’s story. These puzzles, as the game helpfully points out, are completely optional, and you’re free to ignore these as you make your way through the title’s relatively short runtime. As noted earlier, you will eventually get your hands on a simple gun that seemingly shoots air, which you can use to defend yourself from spirits. The combat is far from complex, and generally feels like it was tacked on without further development of the idea.

"Lee helpfully guides you deeper into the planet’s “Lungs”, as you start communicating with spirits along the way."

The level design in Sylvio: Black Waters is also quite interesting. The game is shrouded in darkness and the draw distance is typically kept quite low to add on to the atmosphere. This gave an opportunity to the game’s level designers to go wild with some of their ideas. Throughout the game, there are physics-defying zones you will have to navigate through, with rooms seemingly changing their gravity on a whim, and train tracks floating in the air akin to an unpredictable and dangerous roller coaster.

While your mileage may vary, a single playthrough of Sylvio: Black Waters won’t take players longer than 5 to 6 hours. This short length suits the game quite a bit which makes Sylvio: Black Waters feel like more of an atmospheric mood piece. It never feels like the game was designed for players to experience the game’s entire story through multiple playthroughs. However, since the game’s puzzles and level design never really change, it lends itself quite well for at least one more playthrough after finishing the game to maybe solve some of those optional puzzles you might have run into along the way.

Sylvio: Black Waters is a short and interesting experience, with some excellent audio and visual design, all taking place in an eerie atmosphere. While there are times where the player character will be in actual danger, the game instead acts as more of a mood piece, more focused on letting you get lost in its dark planet rather than having a spooky ghost jump out at you. Somewhere along the way, there’s also a creepy story about a dying world, and even the concept of “air” is given quite a bit of importance throughout the game. However, players who are expecting a coherent narrative will likely have to look to other titles for their horror fix.

This game was reviewed on PC.